Henrico's Top Teachers – Pamela Mills, Pemberton Elementary School, third grade

Pamela Mills has been a fixture in her third-grade classroom at Pemberton Elementary School for the majority of her nearly 38-year teaching career, and she can’t imagine being anywhere else.

“I’ve formed so many relationships with families and relationships with students, it just feels like home,” she said. “I just love this community.”

Mills, who attended Dumbarton Elementary, Brookland Middle and graduated from Hermitage High, began at Pemberton as a student teacher nearly four decades ago, then was hired on a full-time basis at the school in the late 1980s. She moved to Shady Grove Elementary School when it opened in the early 1990s, spent several years there before moving to Short Pump Elementary, then returned to Pemberton.

Mills makes a point to ensure that her students know on their first day in her classroom that she’s on their side.

“That’s what I want them to understand,” she said. “I want them to feel loved and valued. When they feel safe like that, they work harder for you academically.”

And her students do; since the implementation of Standards of Learning testing, Mills’ third-grade classes have scored 96% or higher.

Mills begins each day with a “morning meeting” in her classroom, as a way to help impress upon students goals not only for themselves academically but also as people. She asks them to recite a pledge, too: “I’m smarter than I think, braver than I feel, and I can do hard things.”

That positive reinforcement, she said, pays dividends. As do involving students in their academic data, showing them their growth by the numbers and discussing future goals.

For third-graders – who often are in an in-between development stage and finding themselves as students and people – that approach has proven effective, she said.

When they achieve goals that may have seemed unreachable, “they’re like wow, I did do it.”

“Pam has poured her heart and sole into every moment of her 37-year teaching career,” a nominator wrote. “She truly loves her students and goes above and beyond to make sure every student gets the attention he or she needs to be their best.”

Those efforts also are reflected in the many letters from parents Mills has received over the years, thanking her for her kindness and dedication, the nominator wrote.

She’s also had the opportunity to teach multiple generations of some families – and has watched proudly as some of her former students have gone on to become educators themselves (in a few cases beginning as student teachers in her classroom). She’d like to work with student teachers once her own full-time career is over.

Like other veteran teachers, Mills has adapted her teaching style to meet students in the new technological era in which they live, but she also finds ways to mitigate what could become an endless pattern of screen time, such as having them take ”brain breaks” throughout the day and introducing paper copies of digital lessons.

Mills technically could retire after next year but isn’t ready to do so yet.

“I think I was born a teacher, to tell you a truth,” she said with a laugh. “I feel like teaching is more than just a career for me, it gives me the opportunity to really impact [students] during the most important part of their lives.”